I was in the office one day talking to Tori and in through the front door walks Reece holding his arm ….What?… it’s fucked mate he say’s, my shoulders fucked, I tried to do a jump and landed on my shoulder.

I loaded him into the car and off we went to the medical centre for x rays. He was lucky (we thought) he’d damaged some ligaments and would need a few days rest. A bit of extra work for me in the bar… no drama’s…he was OK, he was reading a book about as thick as the old and new testament put together and a hard drive full of movies. A few torn ligaments weren’t going to keep him off the mountain for long though and he was back up there before he should. Another jump another fall and this time it really was fucked. Number 2 shipped of to Albury for an operation. That meant a bit more work around the place for everyone else, no matter though, we were all becoming one big happy family and everyone was pleased to do it.

When I met Brian at the b-b-que, he had come with a friend of my partner Susy and I, Gabby who he was seeing at the time. She was arriving for three weeks skiing, accompanied by my missus. Susy and I had recently separated after 30 years together and hadn’t seen each other for awhile so I was looking forward to seeing her again. Reece being the gentleman that he was had insisted he would move in with the girls next door (2 beautiful young ladies), a real hardship for him! so she could stay in our room …What a man…as it happened this was unnecessary as Janette the owner had arrived from Perth by now with Margie the Nannie and the kids, she insisted he stay in the flat upstairs to recover, after coming out of hospital.

I am….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!

It was about this time when Lyn, who is one of the about 50 permanent residents at Falls and the manager of the Lodge in the summer, slipped and broke a leg. She was to be the breakfast chef over the winter….not now….she was shipped off to Albury for an operation and returned a week later on crutches. There was only one family staying that week and Brian was getting up to cook for them  but wanted someone else doing it. I used to cook the Barbie’s at home and cooked a mean breakfast, so I put my hand up. I thought, how hard can it be? until it was pointed out to me that I would be cooking up to 50 breakfasts in an hour and a half. There was one condition; Brian had to stay out of the Kitchen! He had tried to show me how things were, in a commercial kitchen but only managed to wind me up, by running around like a chook with its head chopped off. Instead, Lyn would hobble up the stairs and sit in the corner and give me direction (calmly), until I got a routine together. So I was the new breakfast chef. The only thing that really gave me grief was the hollandaise sauce for the eggs benedict but I got there in the end.

I enjoyed my new job, even getting up at 6am, 6 days a week didn’t seem a chore and it kept me out of the Man at night. I’d get all the stories though, Kim at 20 years old and a seasoned boarder and goon drinker would arrive at 7am to get set for waitressing, with a huge smile and a little giggle, she’d remember in bits and pieces what went on the night before. The kitchen was more like a confessional, Lyn and I could only smile at the joy and exuberance of youth.

I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!

The first two weeks I rarely left the lodge; I painted most of the rooms and fitted new T V’s in that time. There were no guests and no snow, so there wasn’t much else to do. I was working 8 and 10 hour days to try and get it all done before the rush.  I was introduced to the Man which was the pub, where I would end up spending many a drunken night, along with the other staff on the mountain. The staff were mostly young snowboard riders, who moved from place to place…. Australia, Japan, Canada, U.S.A, Europe, New Zealand…. working on the lifts, in lodges, anything, to do what they loved to do. This was, work a few hours a day, board or ski the rest of the day and get pissed and party the rest of the time. I wondered how I was going to fit in amongst these young folk at first, until on one of those many drunken nights, I got up on the dance floor and began to move like Jagger, you gotta move like Jagger, and I was in!

Slowly the guest began to arrive and we got a good dump, that’s skiing terminology for, it snowed.

There was skiing to do.

I managed to beg borrow and steal and only had to buy skis. Fifty dollars at the Falls Creek Hotel for a set of ex hire skis and I was ready to roll…..and bounce…. and slide…. all over the mountain. Who said skiing was expensive? I’d been skiing once before in this very place on a one week package, thirty years before, so I had some learning to do.  Brian came up with me the first few times, give me a few tips and then take off  down the mountain, with me right behind him. Occasionally he would have to stop while I picked myself up but mostly I was right behind him when we got to the bottom. I was doing ok.

I am….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!

 

 

I was to be the maintenance man at Trackers Mountain Lodge, I’d met Brian at a bar-b-que at my old house in Perth in the summer. When he told me he managed a ski lodge in Falls, I thought….It ‘s a sign!….I was going to Falls anyway, as sking was the first thing on the list of things to do. I would have arrived and rolled into the pub and started enquiring about work but that was now unnecessary, as he had given me the ok.

So the first morning there, I was shown where the paint, brushes and rollers were and I started to paint, that was the end of May. 1st of June is the first day of winter and I was told to down tools as there was to be a swim in the dam to celebrate the coming season. On with the budgie smugglers and off I went, there were all kinds of attire from  boardies to super hero’s but I saw no one else with the budgies. My son has been telling me for years to get rid of them and after this day they went in the bin. It was now officially the skiing season,all we needed was snow! Over the next week the rest of the staff arrived, I would be shareing a room with Reece, a young lad from Perth, (barman, waiter, housekeeping).In the room to our right was Kim, from Adelaide, (housekeeping), and Ellen from perth, (housekeeping and kids club.) to our left there was Joel the chef and his partner Alice, who would end up getting work in a coffee shop and helping out around the lodge. Next to them, Tori from Queensland (Brians right hand.)

We were all set, bring on the guests!

I am ….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY

 

A weekend in Ballarat was all I needed to recuperate and I confirmed my belief that friends stay friends whether you see them or not. It must have been 15 years since we had seen or heard from each other, yet it was as if it were only yesterday….”Mind you Radar was pretty cute!”….Good luck with the new product Beau.

For me though it was time to move on. Falls Creek was calling and I was anxious to get to the mountains.

The ride was unspectacular for most of the day. Motorway riding is OK for getting somewhere in a hurry but dosn’t get the adrenaline pumping which you need, when when the temperature is below 20 degrees. Ride for 100kl and it’s time to stop to thaw out. This is of course with thermal underwear,tee shirt, jumper, leather jacket, leather vest and wet weather gear to stop the wind factor.

Once I got off the motorway at Wangaratta , the ride became a ride.

Wangaratta it’s the beginning of the great alpine road and the temperature didn’t seem to matter so much. It was about 3pm and the sun was shining which gave a bit of warmth, I was fine until I reached Mt Beauty and started up the mountain. It was 5pm by now and the sun had disappeared behind the mountain. It’s only about half an hour of winding road but by the time I got to the top my teeth were chattering, I was here though, the bike would be going into storage for the winter and I would spend the next 4 months skiing.

I am….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY

 

 

Five days after leaving Perth I arrived in  Ballarat Victoria. About one hundred kilometers north west of Melbourne.

Ballarat is known for the Gold rush in the 18oo’s. In particular the Eureka rebellion 1854, when the miners took up arms against the colonial forces, built a stockade and flew the Eureka Flag which is still used today by the construction industry workers, in times of conflict with the bosses.

I was in Ballarat to visit an old friend who I hadn’t seen for many years.

After so many years in Perth where it was either summer or winter and mostly summer. To see the autumn leaves scattered all over the pavements, roads and still in the trees the reds, oranges, browns, all the earthy colours, gave me a lift hard to put words too. I grew up in the north of England were this was normal, to walk in the park with my old friend Beau and his dog radar, reminiscing and bullshitting about times gone by and times to come, was just the tonic  this old bloke needed after such a long ride in inclement weather.

I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY

I lasted exactly 2 nights in the swag, It was cold and wet and getting colder and wetter. The long and unwinding road meant I had plenty of time to think about my current situation. I kept hearing Janis singing “Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose” as the road trains went thundering by, blowing me all over the road, spraying me with more wet stuff. I don’t like the full faced helmet, feeling too closed in, with not enough vision but at this point I was thinking what a fool, not to at least have one with me for times like this.

None of this dampened my spirits(excuse the pun).

I was doing it! living the dream! So I practiced some meditation and focused on the next road house and the end of the day when I would have a hot shower and a warm bed. I was heading for Falls Creek in Victoria where I would work in a lodge and learn to ski for the season.

The road houses along this stretch of road are about 150 to 250km apart with not much in between, most having accommodation, camping or motel type rooms.With no income I was already conscious of not spending money unwisely but didn’t have to think too much about which to choose.

I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!

 

The road East from Perth is a long road, don’t expect to get to far in a hurry. Personally, I don’t make plans about how far I might get in a day and besides I didn’t leave until mid day so I wasn’t going far that day. I had just spent a summer on the West Coast and 2 months in Bali, so I was in summer mode. I didn’t even consider it might rain!

“In the dream it never rained”

I was cruising the highways and byways in glorious sunshine, blue skies, in a T shirt, with the countryside flying by, wind in my hair and a smile on my face. That’s the way it is if you live in Perth, the most isolated city in the world, the sun shines 8 months of the year.

Leaving the city on the great eastern highway you come to the hills, once over the hills the country starts becoming more and more dry and barren. By the time you reach Norsman which is the beginning of the long straight stretch to South Australia, you are heading for the… Nullabour…the treeless plain….. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great trip, but on a bike it’s not exactly the road you rave about… I will rave about those roads in a later post…After the first night the rain started, just showers to start with but I was heading east, it was mid May, it could only get worse.

I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!

Ok, the STUFF gone, I had something else to do before hitting the road. I flew over to Bali which was a second home for me in the seventys and eightys, with the intention of buying a bit of land that I could build on in the future. A dream of many years, it felt like the right thing to do! I found the land and was within one day of putting down a deposit when it was snatched away by a local cop who beat me to it, while I was organising an Indonesian friend to come and check it all out for me……”must have been a good deal”…….Funny enough rather than be upset, I was relieved. I realised I was falling into the same trap….. More STUFF!….. Phew!…. and besides Bali is not what it was all those years ago when the dream hatched. So, back to Perth to prepare for the trip East. An old and dear friend was having a 60th birthday celebration on Rottnest Island, which is just off the coast of Perth..perfect… I could catch up with him and most of the other people I wanted to farewell before I went for who knows how long. A few days there, another week in Perth to dispose of what was left and I was ready.

I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER…..travelling east…..BE HAPPY!

After 30 years of collecting, STUFF, including the big house on the hill and contents, car, motor bike, boat, camper trailer etc, etc, etc, and still  I wasn’t HAPPY, I decided it wasn’t STUFF that was gonna work for me. My missus kept telling me, snap out of it, life is what you make it and of course she was right. I guess life in the suburbs just wasn’t for me. Ok What to do?

Sell, give away, get rid of… STUFF… so that’s what I did. Loaded up the Triumph left it all behind and got on the road.

BLISS, no bills, no pressures, live in the moment.

Of course nothing is that simple! Join me on my journey of self discovery. Could take another 30 years,  a bit optimistic you might say, as I am rapidly aproaching 60.

I am …. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….. Be Happy!